One Benefit of Tides

I was a lake sailor all my life.  I never had to deal with tides until I started working at Sound Sailing Center in Norwalk, Connecticut, and even then, it wasn't really that big of a deal.   Cruising down the east coast, though, it was a big deal.  You don't want to attempt some of the inlets at maximum current, and docking can certainly be a challenge.  Current has much more of an effect on your vessel than wind.

But there are benefits to the tides.  If you time the tide and current correctly, for example, the ride up Delaware Bay can be shortened considerably.  You also want to make sure that you don't make a trip up a body of water like the Delaware when you have wind against current.   The resulting ride might be very uncomfortable.

But here is another benefit to tides, especially when you have an eight foot tide like here in Georgia.

This is called careening.  It is beaching your boat at high tide so you can work on it.  I don't know what Helen of Troy was going to get done.   Perhaps just some bottom cleaning, or maybe replacing prop and rudder shaft packing.

Helen of Troy was there for a few days, so there was some work to be done.